High tea

Tea time!

High tea, I think you've heard of it, at least once. Tea drinking in the afternoon with tasty, tiny foods and of course, tea! 
I'm going to tell you something about the history of the famous high tea and some funny facts.
Of course, after that, you can find recipes for making scones, sandwiches and other tasty 'finger foods'!
But first about...


High or low??
I was talking about a high tea, but actually the real high tea is something else. High tea, a long time ago, was eaten by men who came home after working and were very hungry. Their wives made a kind of dinner with typical English food and this is officially a high tea.
But we talking about: the afternoon tea, also called 'low tea' (because of the heigt of the table)! This was a little party for rich women in the afternoon (four or five o'clock) and they ate little snacks while relax, having a conservation and having a good time with your friends. 
If we're now talking about a high tea, we actually mean the afternoon tea!

History
The afternoon tea was introduced in England in the 19th century. Anna, a duchess, was hungry between the lunch and the late dinner, so she asked her lady's maid for a pot of tea, some bread, butter and cakes. She invited her friends and this afternoon tea became very popular in England.
Tea has also a rich history, but I'm not gonna tell you that story, but if you're curious, you could take a look here: history of tea.

Funny facts
The tea time was for the rich people, so of course there was an important etiquette. Some facts about tea time:
- English people put milk in their tea
- It isn't a considerate gesure to raise your pink when you're holding a tea cup
- According to the etiquette, you have to strirring your tea very quiet and don't make noises by ticking the cup.
- There are different tea pots for a formal or informal high/afternoon tea
- When ladies went to their friends for an afternoon tea, they often bring their own tea cups with them, in a pretty, special box!

Afternoon tea
First of all, the invitation for an afternoon tea is very important and you have to think about all the things you need for a high tea, such as spoons, tea cups etc.
But you also have to know that there are different types of an afternoon tea and the order of the serving of the foods is also very important:
There's a cream tea, a light tea and a full tea and you always have to eat the savories, such as sandwiches first. After that, you can eat the scones with jam and clotted cream. And at the end, there are the cakes, cookies, shortbread and sweets!

Recipes
I'm going to give you some recipes for scones (with jam and clotted cream), sandwiches, shortbread and a cake.
Scones (with jam and clotted cream)
Ingredients:
- 350g self-raising flour , plus more for dusting
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 85 gramme butter, cut in cubes
- 3 tablespoons caster sugar
- 175 ml milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- squeeze lemon juice
- beaten egg , to glaze
- jam and clotted cream , to serve
Method:
Heat the oven to 220 °C/fan 200 °C/gas 7. 
Tip the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder and then mix it. Add the butter, then mix it (with your fingers) until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir the sugar trough it.
Put the milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds until it's warm, but not hot. Add the vanilla and lemon juice, then set this aside for a moment. Put a baking sheet in the oven. 
Add the liquid with the mix and combine it quickly with a knife - it will seem pretty wet at first. 
Scatter some flour on the workplace and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it's a little smoother. Pat into a round about 4cm deep.
Take a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones. By this point you'll probably need to press what's left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. Brush the tops with beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray.
Bake for 10 minutes until it's risen and gold on the top. 
Eat the scones warm or cold on the day of baking, topped with jam and clotted cream (you can find the 'how to' here!)

Sandwiches (French toast)
I don't think these are typically Brittish and 'real' sandwiches, but I like them very much! And I want to show them to you!
Ingredients:
- 4 slices from a small sliced brioche loaf (or other bread if you don't want or can't find this)
- 3 tablespoons chocolate hazelnut spreads (Nutella!!)
- 1 large egg
- 75 ml (whole) milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
- 1 tablespoon cater sugar
- 2 tablespoons chopped toasted hazelnuts
- 1 tablespoon butter
- icing sugar
- ice cream (to serve)
- raspberries (to serve)
Method:
Thickly spread 2 of the brioche (or bread) slices with the hazelnut spread, then top with the remaining slics to make 2 sandwiches. Use a cutter to make the hearts or cut them in right form.
Mix the egg, milk, vanilla and caster sugar in a bowl. Put the hazelnuts onta a plate. Dip the sandwiches into the egg mixture, leave for 1-2 minutes each side, then dip one side of each sandwich into the nuts. 
Heat the butter in a wide frying pan until it's melted. Add the sandwiches and cook for 1-2 minutes each side until there golden brown. 
Dust with icing sugar and serve with ice cream and raspberries.

Shortbread
Ingredients:

- 300 g butter
- 140 g golden caster sugar (and 4 tablespoons)
- 300 g plain flour
- 140 g rice flour
Method:
Mix the butter and sugar until smooth. Add both the flours and a pinch of salt and mix this.
Spread the mixture out in a (20×30×4cm) baking tray. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge, uncooked, for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days.
Then heat the oven to 180 °C/160 °C/gas 4. Remove the cling film, then lightly mark the shorybread all over with a fork. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar, then bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into thin slices. 

Orange Almond cake
Ingredients:
- 2 large oranges
- 6 eggs
- 1,5 cups ground almonds, divided
- 0,25 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 0,5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Orange slices (for garnish)
Method:
Wash the oranges and boil them whole in enough water to cover completely for 30 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. Cut into quarters and remove any seeds. Mix until it's like a rough puree. 
Beat the eggs in a bowl until thick and add the orange puree, ground almonds, salt, sugar, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix well and pour into a deep greased and floured cake pan. 
Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 45 minutes or longer, until the center of the cake isn't soft anymore. Remove the pan and allow to cool. 
Serve garnished with orange slices. You can dust with icing sugar or use a glaze. Before eating, cut the cake into small pieces.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you will enjoy your food and have a nice tea-pary with your friends!
Until next time!

Love,
Nathalie

Amsterdam

Amsterdam!! <3

Friday (5 April) we went to Amsterdam with our class and the 2e class of Denekamp. We went to Amsterdam because we had lessons about: 'the golden age'. At 7:15 AM we had to be at school. Very early!! I had to wake up at 6 o'clock!! :0. In the bus it was very fun, but we had a big candy fight too!! :)

We went to the V.O.C ship, the Rembrandthuis and to the Amsterdam museum. It was educative, but we walked too much! At the V.O.C. Ship it was very, very cold!!!

We waited a long time by the ship, but on the ship, it was interesting. On the ship we saw how the people on the boat lived. At a trip with the boat it was very dirty and many were sick. Later we walked a long time to the Rembrandthuis.

Of course, we could see how and where Rembrandt van Rijn lived. (He was a very famous painter in the Golden Age). We walked through his living room, bedroom, atelier, kitchen and a very weird room with the things he collected, such as crocodiles, drawings, shells and sculptures. After that, we've made an etching. (this is my etch :) The theme was crazy faces, so this is my little sister :p)

 An etch is a sort of painting: first you scratch a person or a thing in a copper plate, you ink it in, then you wipe some ink of so you get a dark-light effect and as last you press it to another paper. The print that you get is an etch. After etching we had a break, so we could eat at the Mc Donald’s (jummiieeee :p)

and there was a kermis!! Janneke and Nathalie went to a big carrousel!! After a burger, French fries and a mc flurry, we went to the Amsterdam’s Museum.

There were a lot of paintings and items about the golden age. At the museum we classified in a lot of groups. Every group had another job: some had questions about medical things, some about the V.O.C. and some about trading etc. We were a little bit too late, so the kids of Denekamp were waiting in the bus... More than a half an hour!! :0 At the bus it was again very fun... With loud music and tasty things. We were at half past 7 at school. It was an interesting day, but also hard (we had to walk a lot) and some things were boring... But... it was nice!

XXX Evie <3

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday is over and many people visited their family. Maybe you too? But what are you going to do the rest of this day? You can’t eat eggs the whole day and outside it’s too cold, so I have some ideas for you :D

- Make a brunch with, of course, eggs, homemade bread and other things. 

  You could do it with your family, your friends or just both :D

- Instead of eating eggs, decorate them! 

  You could do it with your little brother or sister, your family or your friends.

- Hide the eggs, what’s more fun than search

  the eggs before you can eat them ;D

- Bake a cake, make cupcakes or something else. If you want to have a special Easter-cake, you could put chocolate eggs on top of it. If you love to bake, you could also make a special Easter-high tea.

- If you just want to relax and want to stay home, something I can understand with this horrible weather,  play a game with your parents, brother or sister.

That were my ideas, what are you going to do?

I already know what I’m going to do, I’m going to make some homework (I don’t really like it, but I have no choice) and I’m going to visit friends from my parents.

Love,

Liselotte

NYC: In a New York Color Minute; Quick dry nail polish

NYC (New york color)
In a New York Color Minute

Quick dry nail polish

Janneke

Argghh! Not again! I just painted my nails, but now I have to go to the toilet… And my nail polish isn’t dry yet! What now?
Does this happen to you too? It happens to me a lot! And I hate it… That’s why I was so happy when I saw that these beautiful nail polishes by NYC were in sale. They only costed €2,29 for 2 nail polishes! These are big bottles too with 9,7 ml per bottle, so I had to take them with me.

These nail polishes by NYC say that they are dry ‘In a minute’. Ofcourse, I had to check that out for you girls! ;)

You can touch your nails after a minute, but when your nails bump against something (or if you have to go to the toilet), then your nail polish won’t stay in its place. I didn’t expect these nail polishes to be dry in a minute because of the price, but who knows? :)

I took the numbers ‘294: Lexington Yellow’ and ‘206: East Village’ with me.

I took the following pictures after applying 2 coats of nail polish. This nail polish doesn’t cover completely after 1 coat, so you have to apply 2 coats of nail polish. It also looks like this nail polish doesn’t spread evenly on my nails, but you won’t see anything when you apply 2 coats of nail polish. After 2 coats of this nail polish, you have a pretty and smooth color on your nails: the same color as you can see in the bottle of nail polish. 

294: Lexington Yellow

294: Lexington Yellow is a bright, canary yellow color. I think it’s a very pretty color with a beautiful shine. This nailpolish covers good after 2 coats and then you have a pretty and shining color on your nails. My nails still show through the nail polish a little bit (at my indexfinger and my ringfinger), but you can’t see this from a distance.

206: East Village

206: East Village is a turquoise, see blue color with a metallic green glow. Very unique, very pretty. I think it’s a special, bold color for your nails and I like that. This nail polish covers good after 2 coats too, but my nails don’t show through. Unfortunately you can only see a blue color at these pictures, but the color is a lot greener and the color has a metallic green glow in real life. It’s a pity that I can’t show you this at these pictures.

My conclusion:

I think these nail polishes are very beautiful. Lexington Yellow is not very special, but just very pretty. I think East Village is a special, bold color. These nail polishes don’t cover good after 1 coat and don’t spread evenly on my nails, but you won’t see anything after 2 coats. The bottles are big and they have much product in them and they are also cheap: so if you can still find them in a shop, then i would certainly take these nail polish with you!

I hope you girls liked this article! If you have questions for me, if you want to read a review of a product or if you want to do a request for a nailart, then just place a comment down below and I’ll see what I can do! ;)

Until next time! 
Xoxo' Janneke!

Hi girls!

Hello girls,

This is our first post on our blog, so we're going to introduce ourselves.
We've made this blog for a project on our school, TCC De Thij. Our English teacher, ms. Piras, wanted us to do an extra exercise. So we thougt about it and we wanted to make a blog, for you!
We're 4 Dutch girls and we love beauty and fashion and we also wanted to tell you something our life (and how we survive it :p). So we're going to post articles about beauty, fashion and lifestyle whenever we want to!

Evie:
Hi there, I'm Evie Potijk and I'm fourteen years old. I live in Weerselo. It's 7 kilometres from our school. My dad's called Gerard and my mother's called Brigitte. I also have a sister Noa. I like school (sometimes) and I hope I'm going to do gymnasium. I have a dog, Pip, and a rabbit, Knabbel. I love to play with them. I play volleyball and clarinet. I also like to sing.

Nathalie:
Heey, I’m Nathalie Leussink, 13 years old and I also live far from school :(. I have to ride 12 km every day on my bicycle. I live with my father, my mother and my twin sister. I have a rabbit, called Blacky and my sister has a rabbit, called Snuffie. I love to play volleyball and keyboard and I like to read blogs on girlz.nl and girlscene.nl, so it’s nice to make a blog with my friends!

Janneke:
Hi, my name is Janneke Oldengarm and I'm thirteen years old. I live in Oldenzaal, very close to the school. I like sleeping, so I'm always very late... :p
I live with my mother, father and brother. We've two dogs, called Boomer and Joy and two rabbits, called Snuf and Snuitje. I like them very much. I also like horses, friends, family, ice cream, nail polish (I'm addicted), make-up, singing and moustaches. And I like to read blogs, like beautygloss.nl and veracamilla.nl.

Liselotte:
Hee, I'm Liselotte Oplaat and I'm also thirteen years old. I live in Ootmarsum. My parents are Henk and Ria and my sisters are called Elsemieke and Marlinde. We have a rabbit, his name is Bruintje. My hobby is play the drums and I love to play tennis.

We hope you will enjoy our blog! 
xxxxx